Fyodor Stravinsky

Fyodor Ignatievich Stravinsky (Russian: Фёдор Игна́тиевич Страви́нский), 20 June [O.S. 8 June] 1843, in Golovintsy, Minsk Governorate  – 4 December [O.S. 21 November] 1902) was a Russian bass opera singer and actor of Polish descent. He was the father of Igor Stravinsky and the grandfather of Soulima Stravinsky.

His father Ignacy was a Catholic and came from a noble family of Sulima-Strawiński; his mother, Alexandra Ivanovna Skorokhodova, was a daughter of a Russian small landowner. Fyodor was baptised in accordance with the Orthodox rite due to Imperial Law which stated that children born of mixed Catholic-Orthodox marriages had to be brought up in the Russian Orthodox faith.

In 1869 he completed his education at the Nezhin Lyceum, where he sang in the church choir. He studied voice at the Saint Petersburg Conservatory from 1869–73. He later studied with Camille Everardi in Kiev.

Stravinsky started his solo singing career in Kiev, Ukraine (1873–76) before moving to Saint Petersburg, where he sang at the Mariinsky Theatre for 26 years, from 1876 to 1902. He was hailed as the successor to Osip Petrov, he was renowned for his outstanding dramatic talent as an actor, and he was considered the leading bass at the Imperial Opera. He was admired for the depths of his psychological insights and his mastery of stagecraft.

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